National Archery in the Schools Program

National Archery in the Schools Program

You may have heard, All Saints Academy was the recipient of a grant from the Michigan DNR providing archery equipment to the school for a National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP)! We received our equipment late this past spring and were able to offer most students in 5th through 8th grade at least an introductory lesson during class time, electives, or afternoon school events.

Why Archery? NASP has a great promotional video you can access here explaining the national program goals. Archery is a sport that anyone can participate in regardless of athletic ability. It teaches valuable transferable skills like attention, focus, persistence, precision, and motivation.

How does this fit into a school setting? The mission of National Archery in the Schools Program is to "promote the teaching of target archery as a part of the in-school curriculum to improve education performance of students..."

What are the curriculum connections to an archery program? The Academic Archer Toolkit created by NASP provides lessons to instructors that are designed for a physical education curriculum that can also be integrated into history, language arts, science, math, art and even Spanish class.

The first guiding principle of NASP is safety. The National Safety Council has actually stated that archery is safer and safety protocols and range setup are the basis of the NASP Basic Archery Instructor Course. Check out the NASP website for more about the history and mission of this national program.

At All Saints Academy we plan to offer Archery as an after school option for the 2017-2018 school year. If there is enough interest we will look into connecting with a local regional tournament.